Features

Breaking Down The APMAs: Best Live Band

With the inaugural AP Music Awards taking place July 21, 2014, at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame And Museum at North Coast Harbor, we thought we would use the weeks leading up to the historic event to give you a category-by-category breakdown of the nominees so you can be an informed voter. Read on to learn about the Best Live Band nominees, and cast your vote at altpress.com/apmas!

A DAY TO REMEMBER

The best thing about A Day To Remember isn’t their albums (although they’re great) or their sense of humor (also great). It’s their commitment to putting on an absolutely insane live show, with bigger and better production every single time they go out. I mean, their crew literally built a house onstage every night on their last tour which the would then enter from, triggering sweet pyro—and this is before a single note was even played. ADTR know they’re here to entertain, and they do a fucking phenomenal job of doing it.

ALL TIME LOW

All Time Low are so confident in their live show, their new music video for “The Irony Of Choking On A Lifesaver” is comprised entirely of live footage at a sold-out gig—not some soundstage where they bused in extras, but a packed house of a few thousand screaming fans going nuts for a band who are going equally nuts. The rhythm section never misses a beat, Alex Gaskarth never misses a high note, and Jack Barakat never misses an opportunity to crack a dick joke, making All Time Low an essential ticket purchase every time they come to town.

ASKING ALEXANDRIA

Asking Alexandria have had their fair share of live mishaps thanks to frontman Danny Worsnop’s proclivity for partying hard, but when AA are on, they are on. His screams rattle fillings, his clean vocals soar, and his band never let up on the brutality. Plus, Worsnop is never afraid to say what he’s thinking, as evidenced in the start of this video. Who else gets to call their audience a bunch of c-words and still get a fat paycheck at the end of the night?

FALL OUT BOY

We’ve been backing Fall Out Boy since day one, but we’re not alone: The crowds at their shows have continually grown throughout the past decade, drawn back for a few reasons. Sure, the songs are great, but they’re great songs performed excellently, thanks to Patrick Stump’s incredible vocal prowess. Has that dude ever missed one of his falsetto notes? The smart money is on no.

PIERCE THE VEIL

While their studio albums are impressively slick, Pierce The Veil are a punk band at heart, and they display that grit onstage every night. The Fuentes brothers are just as proficient playing the Forbidden Beat as they are howling over a breakdown, and they know how to get a crowd behind them.

TWENTY ONE PILOTS

Watch this video. Realize it was shot three years ago, before twenty one pilots had achieved any national attention or scored a record contract. Notice how the 1,400-capacity venue is sold out to the rafters. You know how a band does that with no record out? Amazing shows. If you haven’t gotten on board with 21p yet, what the fuck are you waiting for, man?